Monday, March 21, 2011

The Greatest Generation?

Here I am at work, toiling away, when suddenly I hear coughing and retching noises over my right shoulder.

Announcer Man is puking into the garbage can. Concerned co-workers rushed to his side to help him, and managers quickly excused him to go home to rest and recuperate.

I don't think, in my many years working at this place, that I have ever seen Announcer Man go home from work without completing his shift. He usually puts in a half an hour more than everyone else in the building. There's something unsettling about seeing something like this take place. It's akin to heading out to the beach, to find a massive humpback whale stranded and dying on the beach; or driving down the freeway to find a big rig tipped onto its side, blown over by the wind. These are usually unbeatable monsters, that were never meant to be seen in a vulnerable position like this.

Of course, being the stalwart that he is is probably why he was here puking in the trash can instead of vomiting into his toilet at home like anyone else would be.

Luckily, the smell never made its way to where I sit.

-Big Anklevich

...Oh, to top it all off, after five minutes in the bathroom, Announcer Man comes back to grab his things from his desk. He professes to feel much better. "I could probably stay and make it now," he says. I can't help but laugh. His level of dedication is beyond understanding for people of my generation or younger. His attitude is from a completely different, and bygone era.

The thing with A.M. is that, despite what a crappy place to work they made it (and believe me, they MADE it that way; it didn't have to be so), he was always happy to be there, even on the weekends. You weren't kidding about his generation just being better than ours. I would, all these years later, gladly see that place burn to the ground, but Announcer Man would be the first to say, "But what about the people who need it to feed their families, or, in my case, to stay far away from their nagging wives?"